darkSpyro

Quote: Donatron

Btw, I don't know why everybody says SSA has the best story. IMO, it was the laziest. It was basically an extremely long gathering quest. After the 2nd level, all you did was collect eternal sources, then fought Kaos. During that time, there was no character or story development (aside from learning about the Arkeyans). You learned nothing new about the universe or any of its characters. There were no plot twists or surprises of any kind. After playing the first 10 minutes of the game, you knew exactly how the rest of the game will play out, and you learned nothing new along the way.

And you were on the edge of your seat with Giants or Swap Force? They all have a paper thing story but SA was the only one where there was some effort in regards to the storyline. It might have been a quest but at least the quest had relevance to what had happened and wasn't just "Save Skylands from Kaos part 6".

I also disagree that you learn nothing new about the Universe. It's the first time we're INTRODUCED to the Universe and experience it, how do you not learn something new about it when it's being introduced?

Im not passing the judgement on TT yet either but, SF excited me a lot when they released it. Right now i have a pleasant curiousness about tt, but not ohmagodzness.

Yes once SF came out there were some disappointments with how they handled some characters and the stat system, but the jumping, the gameplay and the storyline brought me back to it. now is sf perfect hell no would i have loved it to death as a kid unconventionally hell yes. Without the older mentality that I have today would I have continued with skylanders past the first one? I dont think I would have. I would have had maybe 1 of each element as i had to buy my own games on a limited allowance, (and i wouldn't wanted to have waited 9 months for 1 character for my element) and I would have picked a new game over more characters. so when the sequel came out i probably would have left. And thats what tfb target audience is kids with little money and decisions between games the ultimate choice of life at that age.

Quote: LloydDXZX

TFB are better! Cuz the 1st and 2nd game on the wii were made by TFB and were awesome... No (racism) between other consoles... But VV made swap force on the wii and lots of glitches, really bad graphics and we couldn't go in the Gill's concil... So TFB forever!

Please modify your signature. Beenox developed the SF on Wii that you abhor so much. Keep in mind that this mighty group is in charge of the NEXT GEN platforms for TT. God help us.

VV had anything but a more mature design for Skylanders. I'm totally okay with a bunch of humanoids but not with a bunch of humanoids that all have the same triangle chest,stubby legs and giant hands, and have the archetypes down to their basics instead of having a twist as usual. They went for the low route of repeating character body types and TFB at least differs a lot more in that case.

To me Swap Force seems like a videogame modeled off toys, the whole world looks rubberized. SSA and SG seem like the opposite, they seem like toys made off a videogame. In addition to this I feel like TFB has more refined gameplay, while VV has more refined characters. I prefer TFB because I like the crazy characters (I also feel like there is more variety in their characters as well), and the gameplay seems much more thought-out, I'm currently playing SSF on hard and I'm going through skylanders way too fast. The worst part is I feel cheated when I'm killed, on Nightmare in Giants, I felt like I had died but because I slightly screwed up, in SSF and I get made that I'm dealing with mines that do 150 dmg, units launching rockets that do 150, and flamethrowers that do 35 a second. Although VV introduced a lot of things, I don't think they were refined enough to be enjoyable.

TL DR;
TFB: More Refined and Less Variety in Gameplay
Less refined, Crazier, More Variety in Characters
VV: Less Refined and More Variety in Gameplay (minigames)
More Refined, Less Variety in Characters

Quote: Bifrost

VV had anything but a more mature design for Skylanders. I'm totally okay with a bunch of humanoids but not with a bunch of humanoids that all have the same triangle chest,stubby legs and giant hands, and have the archetypes down to their basics instead of having a twist as usual. They went for the low route of repeating character body types and TFB at least differs a lot more in that case.

I felt like they did a good job of keeping all of the core characters varied. And as far as the swappers go, they had to keep them all with a similar body type so they could make sense when they swapped. It would have been odd to see a small bodied character with a huge set of legs or vice versa.

Quote: shadowfox

It makes me uncomfortable that TfB fought the jumping so hard. That means to me they are heavily looking for ways to advance the toys but not the gaming side. The gameplay needs a lot of changes if this series wants to survive the next gen of kids. Skylanders is not perfect. Older gamers will leave if nothing is changed. TFb think they can rely on new kids to replenish the market but kids are understanding technology younger and younger. They are not as stupid as tfb seems to think. Yes in the 90s it was very rare for a young kid to be a computer or game wiz. Now 4 year olds and younger are figuring it out vide ogames. Next gen children will not be amused by this series for long. They will have long past the lvl of difficulty VV might be the savior for this series if they fight for the push in gameplay.

Or what they could do. TFb designs the toys, VV does the games and they have heave interaction with each other. But that would mean swallowing pride and working with somebody else on your baby TFb.

the problem is their market is already saturated and pretty much this in what you said. people aren't going to keep putting up with tfb's ways of playing. i actually enjoyed giants on the 3ds along with more of the wii u version of giants because VV worked on them, tfb has made the games more annoying and i'm glad swap force saw more vv. they need to have the jump button and if it's gone for trap team i won't even play it or buy it. a game is about having fun and for the most part vv helped keep the interest where tfb sucks at it.

Quote: nocturnalnathan

Quote: Bifrost

I felt like they did a good job of keeping all of the core characters varied. And as far as the swappers go, they had to keep them all with a similar body type so they could make sense when they swapped. It would have been odd to see a small bodied character with a huge set of legs or vice versa.

It didn't need to have huge differences, just some. I can totally see a pair of stubby legs match different types of big chests,but they didn't need to be a carbon copy every time.
And I saw little variation in cores except for Dune Bug(which I don't like because of his textures) and Slobber Tooth. Smolderdash is exactly like Punk Shock(at least for previous females they had different sizes and outfits which faked variation), Scratch is exactly Whirlwind with a mask on, Pop Thorn only isn't Wrecking Ball when he's deflated.
As I mentioned with the girls, at least TFB's designs sort of faked variation, which is better than outright not try anything different other than color and archetype.

EDIT: completely overlooked this:
TFB and VV could work together for once. As I said,VV is good for solid gameplay,TFB is good for plot and character design. For SF it was mentioned by someone in TFB that they gave one look at the designs and left VV to do their thing because they seemed competent, but that's definately NOT how you make a franchise consistent.

TFB wins because they let you skip dialogue you've already heard.

TFB FTW!

Quote: samuraituretsky

TFB wins because they let you skip dialogue you've already heard.

Ok lol.

Sky Stones was terrible. So I'll go with Vicarious Visions here.

Quote: DocCroc

Sky Stones was terrible. So I'll go with Vicarious Visions here.

Only because of skystones? Sorry to say but thats so un-respectfull.
Like, I do not like ut either but TfB just does it better-aside skystones.

Quote: NINJAsk11

Quote: DocCroc

Sky Stones was terrible. So I'll go with Vicarious Visions here.

Only because of skystones? Sorry to say but thats so un-respectfull.
Like, I do not like ut either but TfB just does it better-aside skystones.

I think the word you're looking for is disrespectful.

Anyway, there are people on both sides of the argument posting silly things like the one above. It's best to just ignore them.

We're hypothetically pitting developers under the same publisher within the same franchise against each other here, so the whole topic is silly...

That being said, I felt like Sky Stones was disrespectful of my time. It made a slow game in Giants even slower, and took me out of the moment of controlling these great characters. I didn't feel that way with Swap Force because the mini-games either had good variety or went by quick enough that you never feel disengaged. But hey, I'm an adult playing games focused towards a younger audience, so my criticisms of the series as a game first aren't exactly in touch.

Quote: Hexin_Wishes

Quote: Donatron

Btw, I don't know why everybody says SSA has the best story. IMO, it was the laziest. It was basically an extremely long gathering quest. After the 2nd level, all you did was collect eternal sources, then fought Kaos. During that time, there was no character or story development (aside from learning about the Arkeyans). You learned nothing new about the universe or any of its characters. There were no plot twists or surprises of any kind. After playing the first 10 minutes of the game, you knew exactly how the rest of the game will play out, and you learned nothing new along the way.

And you were on the edge of your seat with Giants or Swap Force? They all have a paper thing story but SA was the only one where there was some effort in regards to the storyline. It might have been a quest but at least the quest had relevance to what had happened and wasn't just "Save Skylands from Kaos part 6".

I didn't say that the other 2 stories were epic masterpieces, but that the first one was the poorest. The other two at least had character development, story progression, and events that took place. I actually got to learn about Kaos's past, plans were diverted due to unforeseen circumstances, villages were saved, characters rescued, Kaos found his way to the Secret Vault of Secrets, etc... The entire plot of SSA occurred in the first two cinematics. After that, you simply gathered the necessary items, while Kaos waited in his fortress.

Quote: Hexin_Wishes

I also disagree that you learn nothing new about the Universe. It's the first time we're INTRODUCED to the Universe and experience it, how do you not learn something new about it when it's being introduced?

I didn't say you learned nothing new in SSA, I said you learned nothing new after the second chapter.

It seems to me that it's the introduction to Skylands that people love, not the story of the game itself. After the first 10 minutes of the game, it's all filler until you fight Kaos. In fact, I'm interested in knowing how much of the story wasn't already revealed in trailers/commercials/etc...

Again, I played the three games back-to-back, so I see things from a different perspective; I don't have the nostalgic bias towards SSA. SSA didn't introduce me to Skylands, all three of them did. So when I look at the three, I don't see the original followed by two sequels. I see three acts of one story. And I found the first act to be the poorest.

Quote: DocCroc

We're hypothetically pitting developers under the same publisher within the same franchise against each other here, so the whole topic is silly...

That being said, I felt like Sky Stones was disrespectful of my time. It made a slow game in Giants even slower, and took me out of the moment of controlling these great characters. I didn't feel that way with Swap Force because the mini-games either had good variety or went by quick enough that you never feel disengaged. But hey, I'm an adult playing games focused towards a younger audience, so my criticisms of the series as a game first aren't exactly in touch.

That's actually really reasonable. I'm a bit too used to having games completely break the pace, but I can see how that annoys people that are more interested in the actual game than minigames.
They could always try tweaking it - it had reeeeally slow animations for everything; if there was a fast foward button that didn't just appear halfway through, one could just spam Chompy Bots and be done with it without having to watch the announcer say the card names every time before they fall down.
Or making Skystones cheats cheaper and Auric's shops more common/earlier in the level,that could be a thing. But covering up the minigame doesn't make it better, I'd rather see them actually make it enjoyable.

Quote: Donatron

Quote: NINJAsk11

Quote: DocCroc

Sky Stones was terrible. So I'll go with Vicarious Visions here.

Only because of skystones? Sorry to say but thats so un-respectfull.
Like, I do not like ut either but TfB just does it better-aside skystones.

I think the word you're looking for is disrespectful.

Anyway, there are people on both sides of the argument posting silly things like the one above. It's best to just ignore them.

I don't know if that is completely silly as not well explained. They based their opinion off the low point versus the high point. Just a different criteria from some of the other folks.

TFB makes better games hands down

TFB!they Are WAY better!EDIT i like them both Equally now...

Quote: EPICNESS2500

To me Swap Force seems like a videogame modeled off toys, the whole world looks rubberized. SSA and SG seem like the opposite, they seem like toys made off a videogame.

I think this really sums up what I consider to be the primary difference between the two developers. I also think VV appears more adept technically on a few fronts (I know TfB got the original portal to work, but I see lots of great stuff from VV with the tablet version and the swapping). TfB seems to be more CREATIVE on the toy side. I-Wei is easily TfB's most important asset.

Bottom line--both bring great stuff to the franchise. Glad to have them BOTH.

Quote: GhostRoaster

Quote: EPICNESS2500

To me Swap Force seems like a videogame modeled off toys, the whole world looks rubberized. SSA and SG seem like the opposite, they seem like toys made off a videogame.

I think this really sums up what I consider to be the primary difference between the two developers. I also think VV appears more adept technically on a few fronts (I know TfB got the original portal to work, but I see lots of great stuff from VV with the tablet version and the swapping). TfB seems to be more CREATIVE on the toy side. I-Wei is easily TfB's most important asset.

Bottom line--both bring great stuff to the franchise. Glad to have them BOTH.

its always been about selling the toys, and the two first games they did make. there was a good combination of both, the game and figurines... but from now on its gonna feel like videogame modeled off toys instead of toys made off a videogame, you cant blame vv for that. you can just go so far with the toys made off a videogame, before everything become like videogame modeled off toys. its saturation and it cant be avoided. but what i have seen from vv skylanders games, they have shown more innovation than tfb. so i am looking more forward to the games from vv, i also think vv will be the ones that will bring us the online game, we all have been asking for.

From what I understand people are talking about with the "game based off toys" and "toys based off the game," I feel the opposite.

I feel that TFB focus is mostly on the toys and the technology. When they make a Skylanders game, they aren't making a game so much as they are making a world for you to explore in with your Skylanders. The gameplay is more simple, and IMO is less fun than VV.

VV, on the other hand, is focused on making a good game. SSA 3DS and SSF console would be very fun games even if they weren't attached to the Skylanders franchise. Even if you only could play as a single character in those games, there is enough variety to keep it exciting.

I think TFB focuses on the toys, and the game is secondary. Likewise, VV focuses on the game, and the toys are secondary. You can even see this in the characters from each company.

TFB's characters are much more varied, design-wise, but after SSA they mostly are attacks of previous characters re-arranged. They also are not very balanced. They want you to buy the new characters, so the new characters can do way more damage than the older characters. Because of this, older characters can struggle in the newer games.

VV's characters are all about interesting gameplay, focused around the engine the game is in. In SSA 3DS, all of the characters got a new, custom moveset that allowed them to shine in the platform-based world. In SSF console, while they kept the older characters' movesets the same (they had to, since it was a console title), the new characters they had creative control over were a lot more specialized to the new engine. I could see this when comparing Boomer and Blast Zone. Boomer's bombs moved in a low arc, which while it was great in the older engine, with combat on a 2D plane for the most part, and it had been high enough to reach higher platforms before, wasn't nearly as useful in Swap Force's engine. Blast Zone's bombs, on the other hand, had a very high arc, and bounced. This allowed the bombs to hit more enemies, even though they didn't go much farther than Boomer's did (IIRC).

I really wasn't interested in TT for a while because I was so focused on how the gameplay wouldn't be as good as SF. But, after seeing Riverfish Riviera, and hearing them talk about how many phrases the villains had, I realized that this game is something that I will want to experience. I just had to realize that I shouldn't be thinking about it as a game, but as a world, instead. After all, this series is advertised as Toys to Life, which TFB's games truly are. They make the toys feel alive much better than VV do, simply by using a world rather than a game. (Still, I like SSF better, but I can't deny that TFB does do this right)

VV Changed up Skylanders way too much. But I enjoyed the fast gold collection and bonus missions. But I liked the style TFB came up with the most.

Why I like SA's story best, in a nutshell:

//forum.darkspyro.net/spyro/vi...&page=9#5255656

It put in the most effort to make toys to life feel magical, the whole way through, which I think none of the sequels have done (and it doesn't look like TT will)

Quote:

Based on Giants and Swap Force, I liked Giants much more and thus I'd absolutely go with TfB! I've already stated my feelings about VV's Swap Force many times so I won't go into it again. It'll be interesting to see if TfB will live up to my expectations and hopes. Me buying Trap Team will depend on what I hear from them and what's added and/or removed. I do have very high hopes for their game though!

agree with You 100%

Quote: CountMoneyBone

i also think vv will be the ones that will bring us the online game, we all have been asking for.

I agree, and I bet the innovation is going to be good as well.

I enjoyed the games far better with Giants and SSA. One thing in particular was my enjoyment of heroics so I could work on my characters to improve them. I was also a big fan of the Luck-O-Tron in Giants, it really helped a great deal with quests. Swap Force took away so many things I liked, as if VV was saying that this is their game and they'll do what they want with it. As such, it really took away any faith I had with VV in this series, as SF (in my opinion) almost killed my interest in Skylanders.

I definitely felt that way at first Eggers...still do in some areas. What they took away in some areas they added in others. The competitiveness of the solo and bonus missions is very interesting. The Adventure Packs were definitely a great value. Swap Zones, portal master ranking, and a million more accolades and rewards in game made up for lack of Heroics. But I'm still sore about toys to life not being a big deal in Swap Force. I DO HOPE TfB brings some of that back. At the same time, they stretched in some areas and I get the feeling TfB is playing it very safe this go round. With risk comes reward...or failure. On the whole VV pulled it off much better than I had intended.

I will agree, VV did add in some things that I thought were good ideas, for most of the reasons you've already listed. I loved the portal master rank, though I hope in the new game there is no cap on it until you run out of stars. I had hit 80 and still had a ton more stars that I just didn't care about anymore. I think I definitely would have stuck with the game longer just for the ranking up if they didn't cap it at 80 with so many stars left.

Quote: GhostRoaster

I'm still sore about toys to life not being a big deal in Swap Force. I DO HOPE TfB brings some of that back.

I think the traps and the idea that you can hear the villain talking through the trap will really bring back some of that immersion. TFB seems to be doing a better job with that than VV did. Still not as immersive as SSA, but more immersive than SF.

@tigerdr Err... n-Space developed Giants 3DS, not VV. They did develop the first 3DS game (as well a couple of ports and the mobile games), but n-Space developed the other two.

@TrapShadowFan +1. That's what I expect too. And I expect TT to have a better plot than SF.

I just have to mention this somewhere... Rufus is my most hated NPC ever, and that's become a joke in our household. At least he gave me one good thing- being such a joke- though I still absolutely hate him.

To be honest I haven't touched SF for about two weeks now and haven't wanted to. I'm doing a casual run of each Skylander game before TT, so I'll replay it once I complete Giants again, but I'm not excited to. It has a couple of major mechanic improvements and the extra modes are good, but I didn't care for the plot at all (not going over that, nitpicked it dozens of times) so I wasn't compelled to beat it, and got sick of replaying it faster than the other two.

I like the level design more, though. The puzzles and vehicle segments/minigames are mostly more interesting- for instance, the Spark Plugs give you a good amount of Gold for completing them so that they still give you something like exploring the level would, and all the vehicle segments have faster movement than those in SA/Giants. I think they should have added Gold rewards similar to Giants for the vehicle segments- they give too little gold, though at least they don't feel as slow. I also really like how spots with collectables are replaced with gold if you've collected from them and revisit- you still have a reason to explore and the levels don't feel so empty. (I'm smad that's gone in TT! Grrryyyy! )

The extra modes were the best addition, imo. The only extra modes I replayed much were Time Attack (because I like speedrunning and it's something I wanted since the first game, but eventually I got sick of it because of damned unskippable cutscenes in half the levels), and Survival (largely because it had no cutscenes and it's also where I would mess around with mechanics).
However, I still appreciate Bonus Missions as a fast way to get Gold, and being able to play SWAP Zones on their own was good. I personally don't care about Score Attack (but it's good to have the option), though that aside, the only other qualm I have with the bonus modes is how Battle Mode's so limited. It is the worst Battle Mode in the series, and I won't listen to any objection against that- you need to get Battle Pieces for 2 of the 5 arenas, in my opinion they're all more bland than the majority of the SA/Giants ones, no mode options like Ring Out, catchphrases and arena intros repeat between every match and make it slower to start rematches than Giants, and being unable to attack in midair feels awkward in Quicksand Quarry/Treacherous Beach (which have fairly prominent bounce pads).

My goodness, I haven't even mentioned how I hate the way some older Skylanders were nerfed. I never choose to play most of them, because a lot of them are just unusable in SF. Some (like Shroomboom) were actually buffed well and would fit right in with the new ones, but the majority are just noticeably worse than the new Skylanders. I'm mad that TT is power-creeping again, because they're going to have to rebalance everyone for a new scale AGAIN, which didn't turn out well for a lot of the old Skylanders in SF (especially the ones that got unnessicary nerfs to their mechanics, like Sprocket getting hit while building a turret leaving her in place, or her Landmine Golf only hitting one enemy now *grumblegrumble*).

I like how they used jumping- ie how you'd use it to jump over the Earth Geargolems' shockwaves- and it gives the levels more flow, because you don't see jump pads lathered over them, though they still implement spots where you need to jump. Improved knockback is great- it's much more balanced than the TFB games, in that there are more moves you can use that guarantee it happens- so it's more based on skill, because you can almost always set up/use something to stop an enemy for a second, while not many attacks in SA/Giants had guarunteed knockback.

Just having less/way shorter unskippable cutscenes and more rewarding Quests, plus maybe a better Battle Mode, would have made SF so much better to me. It felt like there was nothing left to do with my Skylanders after I went through every level/each extra mode and Quests were oh-so-painfully unrewarding, plus I got sick of all the cutscenes in levels, which made it really boring to play a short session if I wasn't playing Survival.
I liked messing around with mechanics after I got tired of everything else, although I wish there were some place which would challenge me to use them and force me to know them, like an Impossible Difficulty. (That's not a big problem, though- I'd like a harder difficulty, but rather see a bunch of other stuff adjusted first.)

In summation: I think SF added some really good stuff but overall had a lot of niggles that bogged it down somewhat. I want to see some of those additions in a game that addresses the bigger issues SF had.
I'd say objectievly Giants is the worst of the main three, and wether you like SA or SF better probably depends on wether you care about the story or level/mechanic design more.

(Personal favourite is Giants because of nostalgia + some unique tweaks, least favourite is SF because I found it unrewarding to replay, though they're all good)

Toys for Bob=Story
Vicarious Visions=Gameplay

I prefer Vicarious Visions.

They're both really good. For the most part, VV rules in gameplay and TfB rules. In storyline, characters, etc. As much as I am a fan of TfB, I think VV is the better one.

Now, if only the two companies just worked together as one studio to make he games.

Team VV for me. Swap Force was way more fun for my wife and I than SSA or Giants.

I don't know....I'm personally still pissed at TFB for a very stupid and very immature reason....THEY PROMISED A SERIES 2 BOOMER AND HERE WE ARE GOING INTO SKYLANDERS 4 AND ZIP!!!!!!


Now that that's out of the way I'm indifferent. V.V. did a very good job with SSF even though they did force the Rufus Spam. If Rufus could be skipped it would have been a damn near perfect game. As an adult gamer I like content and longevity. SSF had that in spades compared to other entries. SSA and Giants are hardly perfect or do we all forget how short our memories are and choose to not remember the constant whine feast of Heroic Challenges, not enough content, graphics, Toys not feeling unique enough (looking at you Giants). For me personally the "Meat and Potatoes" award goes to V.V. while the "Mad Props." and "Love & Respect" award goes to TFB for creating the genre and franchise. Both companies are totally worthy...

...End of Line.

I've never read or seen a video where TfB has promised us ANYTHING.

Quote: GhostRoaster

I've never read or seen a video where TfB has promised us ANYTHING.

It was an old Paul Ritchie interview around the time of Giants. Having a hard time finding it but I'll keep looking. He never gave specifics but went on to say "He would be back" and such. I could have sworn I saw something that said sooner rather than later.

Edit:

http://youtu.be/JJmSlTh1bO0

This was all I could find. Nothing technically promised but implied (that they want him in future installments)...I still want a new Boomer dammit lol. Frankly EVERY original (as in SSA) Skylander that doesn't have a series 2 should have one by now. How Zook made it over Voodude, Boomer or Dinorang is beyond me but oh well.

Quote: Tigorus

Quote: GhostRoaster

I've never read or seen a video where TfB has promised us ANYTHING.

It was an old Paul Ritchie interview around the time of Giants. Having a hard time finding it but I'll keep looking. He never gave specifics but went on to say "He would be back" and such. I could have sworn I saw something that said sooner rather than later.

i would like to see that video too...

TFB all the way

VV is my choice, by far. I appreciate what TfB, given they created the whole thing, but they are really reluctant to step back and make course corrections. Fans wanted jumping, TfB flat out said they wouldn't have added it and would prefer to not have it in TT, but the cat is out of the bag. Fans wanted longer levels - VV delivered, TfB sticks with short "kid friendly" levels with short attention span mini games that take up far too much time, level vehicle levels that take the place of actual fighting (which is what makes the game special, in a vehicle every character is basically the same). Swap Force Adventure Packs are actually meaty levels, not 5-10 minute distractions. TfB stuck with the "lowest common denominator" platform on the Wii, VV stepped it up to HD consoles. Who would want to play a game with Wii models on the PS4/XBOne?

Drop us in the world, then let our character choice variety shine. I have a feeling if VV wasn't part of the equation, we would still be playing a Wii game with Trap Team, ground locked, short levels and lots of simple mini games. VV made some mistakes, but swapping was a great innovation and the game engine is leagues better due to their influence. They forced TfB to step up their game.

Yeah,how dare TFB appeal to casuals and kids, they needed to be shown what real bad character design is like.


If my posts from the SF section are any indication, yeah I support TFB far more. Better plot, less putting characters on pedestal, incredible character design; they're not without flaws (power creeping WILL bite them back in a few years, if not VV, doing SSA without a sequel in mind up until a few months later was kind of strange). But I do get VV's strong points now getting close to the release of TT - they're good with doing new things from the ground up even when they had no say on the series until last year, and their indoors levels weren't obvious RPG-y room maps inside a dark skybox.
But the real solution is putting those two together. Give a game both I-Wei's character design and the polished gameplay of VV and combine both styles of texturing, you get what could be the highest point of the series (sure they could disagree and make it a mess, but let's pretend they agree on doing the best of both worlds).

I only played SF, so I don't know what TfB's games are like, but I think that if they have such great character creation and VV has such great gameplay creation, why don't they have them work together, each working on the thing that they're best at?

EDIT: Sorry, didn't see the above message. I agree with Bifrost.

Quote: CountMoneyBone

Quote: Tigorus

Quote: GhostRoaster

I've never read or seen a video where TfB has promised us ANYTHING.

It was an old Paul Ritchie interview around the time of Giants. Having a hard time finding it but I'll keep looking. He never gave specifics but went on to say "He would be back" and such. I could have sworn I saw something that said sooner rather than later.

i would like to see that video too...

I remember that and it was him basically saying "anything could be in the cards" -- definitely not a commitment. Not sure where you guys get off thinking someone saying it in a video as an iron clad agreement.

Quote: defpally

VV is my choice, by far. I appreciate what TfB, given they created the whole thing, but they are really reluctant to step back and make course corrections. Fans wanted jumping, TfB flat out said they wouldn't have added it and would prefer to not have it in TT, but the cat is out of the bag. Fans wanted longer levels - VV delivered, TfB sticks with short "kid friendly" levels with short attention span mini games that take up far too much time, level vehicle levels that take the place of actual fighting (which is what makes the game special, in a vehicle every character is basically the same). Swap Force Adventure Packs are actually meaty levels, not 5-10 minute distractions. TfB stuck with the "lowest common denominator" platform on the Wii, VV stepped it up to HD consoles. Who would want to play a game with Wii models on the PS4/XBOne?

Drop us in the world, then let our character choice variety shine. I have a feeling if VV wasn't part of the equation, we would still be playing a Wii game with Trap Team, ground locked, short levels and lots of simple mini games. VV made some mistakes, but swapping was a great innovation and the game engine is leagues better due to their influence. They forced TfB to step up their game.

100% agreed.

-GR

... I know I've kept harping on about how much I dislike SF's Quests, but I made a rant about it that I'm actually happy with: http://www.nintendolife.com/re...#comment2577763

I should add that although I said I would play Heroics if I played casually... I did play far less during SA, not really caring about wether I maxed everyone, but I still completed every Heroic with my favourites and tried doing all the Speed Heroics with everyone.

I think a huge part of why I like SA/Giants better than SF is that I find it more fun to replay them, since I can actually get noticeable boosts for Skylanders besides upgrades (which don't feel that special to me- I just exploit Gold cheats for them now and quickly get them done). I got 100% on SF long ago, so there's nothing left that I want to do.

I agree with defpally at the same time in that VV progress the gameplay more, buuut I just don't like SF. I want something extra to upgrade on Skylanders again, that actually feels rewarding, and I haven't seen anything that convinces me we're getting that in TT either...

Quote: GhostRoaster

Quote: CountMoneyBone

Quote: Tigorus

It was an old Paul Ritchie interview around the time of Giants. Having a hard time finding it but I'll keep looking. He never gave specifics but went on to say "He would be back" and such. I could have sworn I saw something that said sooner rather than later.

i would like to see that video too...

I remember that and it was him basically saying "anything could be in the cards" -- definitely not a commitment. Not sure where you guys get off thinking someone saying it in a video as an iron clad agreement.

-GR

Dude I was kidding (and I thought quite clearly exaggerating)...I even said my reason was immature and posted the video showing they didn't promise...although I do remember other videos but that's the only one I could find. They've done very well at not promising anything frankly. They are very vague and leave a lot open to interpretation...a lesson I'm sure they learned from Activision.


Quote: defpally

VV is my choice, by far. I appreciate what TfB, given they created the whole thing, but they are really reluctant to step back and make course corrections. Fans wanted jumping, TfB flat out said they wouldn't have added it and would prefer to not have it in TT, but the cat is out of the bag. Fans wanted longer levels - VV delivered, TfB sticks with short "kid friendly" levels with short attention span mini games that take up far too much time, level vehicle levels that take the place of actual fighting (which is what makes the game special, in a vehicle every character is basically the same). Swap Force Adventure Packs are actually meaty levels, not 5-10 minute distractions. TfB stuck with the "lowest common denominator" platform on the Wii, VV stepped it up to HD consoles. Who would want to play a game with Wii models on the PS4/XBOne?

Drop us in the world, then let our character choice variety shine. I have a feeling if VV wasn't part of the equation, we would still be playing a Wii game with Trap Team, ground locked, short levels and lots of simple mini games. VV made some mistakes, but swapping was a great innovation and the game engine is leagues better due to their influence. They forced TfB to step up their game.

Totally agree. Bottom line is we get out of this franchise what we want and for my money I feel V.V. has put up the most in the improvement category and based on Swap Force I felt the franchise was evolving...even if I did want to KILL Rufus. I am still mystified why this franchise is still afraid of being online. Activision knows a thing or two about online gaming and the fact that Infinity is doing it and Skylander's is still off line is a real head scratcher.

Whether or not it's Toys For Bob or Vicarious Visions who did these, you have to give Vicarious Visions credit for those amazing, albeit odd at times, character icons for each character as opposed to just reusing stock images of the Skylanders. Now Trap Team is going back to just reusing the standard images of characters again. Sad I'm gonna miss some of those unique character icons like , , and whole bunch of them.

Awesome? The new character icons? They're just stylized artwork which were done like an afterthought used for the HUD and the battle loading screen where sometimes they couldn't bother to fill in lineart leaving weird transparent holes where it's supposed to be. I take the main artwork for anything any day over VV's already horrible art affecting even older characters. (and seriously, who thinks doubling Hex's forehead length or making up textures for some other guys is a good idea)

I never said all of them looked good. Boomer looked kinda messed up and yeah Hex is quite distracting. I was more towards glad to see more than just stock already existing images for the character icons, but I do get what you mean. There are a few that came off as just odd. Especially Slam Bam, but he in general was made to look weird in Swap Force for some reason. Same with Warnado and Dino Rang, not really sure what happened to those two.